A content management system may store objects that either hold content or are related in some way to objects that hold content, such as folder objects that organize such objects. These various objects typically have certain properties. The properties can be system-defined properties, present at all installations, or custom-defined properties that a user adds at a particular installation. In many environments, a client application may provide features that allow a user to edit the values of these properties. The current property values are fetched from an existing object or the default values are fetched for a new object. The user may make one or more changes to the property values before saving the object. While the user is editing the object, the values are considered the working values of the properties, and have not yet been persisted to the content management repository. The content management repository holds certain metadata or attributes about properties such as allowable minimum and maximum values or a list of allowable choices.